Lost Keys
by Aiko Isari
Summary: [Pre-02 AU] The Ken who lands on the floor of his room is barely breathing. The Ken in the emergency room doesn't know where he is, but where he was. Osamu puts the big bad world on hold, and tries to find out the truth. However, someone really doesn't want him to know.
1. Circumstantial

1\. Circumstantial

Osamu gets home grumpy and late.

The latter's nothing new. Every Tamachi computer system has been glitching lately and it's infuriating how much slower they are compared to the PC he built on his own (and even that keeps beeping and whining right now, he can hear it from here. Well he shouldn't be able to, but he looks about and his door is open. It's not widely so, or he'd be more angry. His mother likes to leave food in his room (ew, the bugs!)and sometimes Ken eats it, and his excitable little brother doesn't need anymore sugar.

Besides, his parents aren't home yet. Her mother's job (all for his sake, funnily enough, they need more money to keep up with his needs, not Ken's) keeps her until the shadows start changing shape and then she gets dinner ready while father is simply out and gone unless there's an interview with his plain face written on it.

He's so bitter at eleven, his online friends tell him. Hah. What do they know?

He struggles to breathe evenly for a moment. His brother's probably in his room. Usually that's bad, but it's summer and Ken's friends – not friends, he thinks with annoyance, _tagalongs-_ need extra classes to keep up and keeping up with Ken shouldn't be hard, his little sibling's not that far ahead of everyone else (yet). But regardless, Ken has no one to play with so is usually regulated to educational computer games and his computer runs best.

Yet this time, Osamu knows that's not it. He knows because they'd been in the same room and seen the same thing. He knows what Ken is actually doing in there.

Idiot. He could be hurt. Without Osamu. It'd be his fault. And that came out of his computer so, so-

Hah, like it'd ever be yours.

Shoulders squared, Osamu strides into his room, prepared to speak as quietly as possible because it's not permanent, it's not bad for eternity and it's not all Ken's fault but he's just ticked off today.

And his fully opened door reveals something very wrong.

"Ken! Wake up! Ken!"

He isn't waking up.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ Oops. Read and review?

 **Challenges:** Drabblechap Competition, Ultimate Sleuth Nakano Broadway, Diversity Writing (AM) H47., CHapter Set Boot Camp prompt '20'.


	2. Overflowing

2\. Overflowing

The beeping is so loud, why is it so loud?

Osamu doesn't really pay the doctors much attention. He knows better. They'll say a lot of jargon that doesn't really mean anything even if he explains it to himself, which he can't, because he doesn't speak medical yet (he will after this, he swears it, he'll learn Latin and Greek and English and anything he has to to make it through so long as his brother survives). He'd only be translating for the sake of his distraught parents and he doesn't want to deal with the distress, he just wants the sane Japanese to tell him what's wrong.

He doesn't get even close to that. Instead he gets a kid who looks like a giant blob of brown rushing in and then rushing out. He runs to grab the other's shirt but his athletics have never been the best and so he's too busy wheezing to get very far. Instead he hears a sharp intake of breath from the left open door and his brother is awake.

* * *

Perhaps it's the unconsciousness, the long sleeping period but Osamu doesn't like Ken's eyes. They're too cloudy. Though he still smiles like he knows the adults might eat him, thin and tremulous, the eyes are still too off putting. His brother is observant, even when he's not the smartest in the room, he notices things.

This Ken's eyes slide about like always but they're a little too sluggish.

Mom weeps with something like guilt. He touches Ken's face and gets baffled looks and their father just looks defeated at his shoes. Osamu asks questions and gets blank stares and watery ones. He's worried yes but he needs answers.

Osamu notices the device, still clutched tight in Ken's fist. They had never managed to pry it away, not even during surgery.

He tells his brother he is in the hospital. Ken nods but there is something there, there is something long lost that should be there and he can't identify it. He's not good with emotions either.

' _You can do it because you're gentle.'_

Yeah that had been reassurance for a likely swelling inferiority complex.

Ken just smiles at him, mouths an apology.

Osamu feels his throat tighten.

 _Invasion of privacy does not mean you deserve to be in the hospital._ He wants to say that, but he can't. He just nods and asks if he can take the device insead.

Ken, puzzled, agrees and says, "Sure, but be careful. Wormmon's really shy."

Osamu promises, not entirely sure what he's promising to begin with.


	3. Sight Read

3\. Sight Read

Nothing. Again.

Osamu supposes he shouldn't be surprised. It hadn't worked before. There was no reason for it to work now. Not even because Ken trusted it to. Though he isn't even sure that's a feasible source of power to begin with. Ken has always been the one to believe in those things

"Don't you want to help Ken?" he asks it, frustration making him squint hard enough to hurt his eyes. The little pale device just sits there in his palm, unmoving. Osamu scowls, and only the thought of that drawer and what trouble it's already caused keeps him from slamming it in there and locking it there for good. He puts it on the desk instead, disgruntled.

He knows it can help Ken. He knows it in his gut, which he only trusts once in a great while. He really wishes it wouldn't thin his last good nerve to do so.

Reluctantly, he decides to turn in early. If he doesn't, he'll probably squint until he gets a headache.

Hours later, the darkness of his room starts to shift from the light on his computer table. He rolls over to ignore it at first. Then panic and surprise set in and he bolts towards it.

It glitters and flashes and then starts screeching like nails on a chalkboard. He scowls and lunges for it. It burns. His fingers blister up inhumanly fast, but he's got it now and can't let go.

Then his computer turns on, despite him never pressing the power button. It doesn't boot up. The monitor instead glows the same color as the device. Osamu feels a strange tug in his chest and soon finds himself falling. He can't really see what he's falling down in but he's vaguely sure he is falling.

Of course he hits the ground and blacks out while he's at it, but, well, it's a small price to pay for something working at long last.

All he can think of is, what will his parents think to nearly lose both boys at once? He hopes they don't have to think about it any time soon.

He can't promise that not to be forever.


	4. A Precious Person

4\. A Precious Person

"Hey!"

Osamu groans and shakes his head. He distinctly dpes not want to open his eyes. Everything from back to front hurts something awful and it makes him sick to even imagine moving. But he has to because there's an insistent poking at his fleshy arm and swatting it is not working. He opens his eyes-

And there's a giant green caterpillar on his chest.

He, like most sane human beings, screams like a ninny. The caterpillar screams back.

Eventually they both stop because it hurts their throats and ears. Osamu resolves himself to staring instead. "What _are_ you?"

"I'm Wormmon!" Because that answers his question, cheerful little insect. "I'm a Digimon! You smell like Ken-chan."

These matter-of-fact statements boil down to one important thing: "You know Ken?"

"I'm his partner, of course I know Ken-chan." The caterpillar puffs up his tiny chest. "Are you that 'Osamu-nii-san'-" He sounds out the word incredibly slowly, like he's never heard it before. "His brother?"

"Yeah." Osamu's talking to a giant caterpillar. He's talking to a giant _talking_ caterpillar that calls itself a worm monster. What is his life now? "Can you get off me?"

Wormmon obediently scuttles off, still examining him like he means something about it. "You're much taller than Ken-chan. You're much more like Ryo-san!"

"I'm older." Osamu files these and his panic away for later. He uncurls one hand and finds that weird device just sitting there in his palm.

Of course, Wormmon notices. "That's Ken-chan's!" He doesn't seem anything like what Ken's described him, but perhaps it's the curiosity at work. "Why do you have it?"

"It came out of my computer!" Okay yes, he's still kind of angry that Ken touched his stuff. He's worried about Ken, but _Ken still touched his stuff._

Wormmon scuttles up his leg and Osamu has to not cringe. "That doesn't make it yours. It's Ken-chan's. Is he still sick?" The worm shrivels up a little on his shoulder. "I sent him back too soon didn't I?"

Osamu feels cold dread in the back of his throat. "You know what happened to Ken?"

Wormmon flinches and it's like Ken seriously they have to be friends. "No! That's why I sent him home! That thing hit him and-" Wormmon freezes, looking past his head in pure dread.

Then a cold wind starts to blow. And it hits hard.


	5. Placement and Promise

5\. Placement and Promise

Osamu opens his eyes to his bedroom ceiling. Everything hurts. Ken's strange object is glowing green and pink in his palm. He can't find the energy to move his arms or the rest of his body for that matter.

He remembers the scratchy voice of Wormmon letting out a high scream and someone's voice slinking in his ear.

 _Can't you leave well enough alone?_ The voice had let out a heavy sigh. _"Don't you know best about your brother's own insignificance? He is fine."_

Osamu finds himself believing that as much as he believed Ken was harmless. His brother was not harmless and he was not fine.

His mother jumps when she finds him splayed on the floor and Osamu lies more than he ever has.

* * *

Ken is so happy to see him that the resentment from before is as dim as a dying lightbulb. To be fair, he also looks like death warmed over. His skin is the color and texture of rice paper. Osamu would throttle a voice in his head to get a brother that looks alive.

"Did you see Wormmon?" His demand is tempered by coughing but he looks so innocently at him that Osamu almost forgets their parents are there. That's always dangerous for special children, children who grew up too fast one way and not enough some other ways and in some cases not at all. He is only eleven and his parents expect everything and the moon from him and _it needs to stop._

For some reason before they arrived, they asked\ about his homework. Maybe it was a coping mechanism because their son and his grades are a normal topic. If they focus on him being extraordinary things will seem okay. Maybe.

Osamu, being cynical, knows better.

"Yeah." He says, looking like he's playing along even though he believes every word. The sparkle in Ken's eyes claim to know it too, the cheeky brat. "He's real nice. Bit excitable though."

"Really?" Ken frowns. "Maybe he was real curious. I talked about you."

"He's worried about you," Osamu says watching Ken twitch and droop.

His brother looks like a kicked kitten. Ken the kicked kitten.

They sit together as Ken mulls this over, chubby fingers on his hospital gown and eyes going to the steady IV dropping along.

When their parents go outside, Osamu asks. "Was there someone in that place that didn't like you?" Ken stares at him with this baleful 'no duh' look that he had to have learned from him and he elaborates. "Like, hated you. Dismissed you." _was like me._

Ken nods, his chubby face screwing up in concentration. "Moon-Millenniummon," he finally says. "He hated me. He wanted Ryo-san. I didn't want him to. He was _bad._ Bad like those cultists and people who kill people."

Osamu swallows. "Did he kill people?"

Ken nods. "Tried to kill me. I think he wants to."


	6. A Lot of People

6\. A Lot of People

Those words from days before still chill Osamu deep in the gut. He can't explain why, but he feels like he's in mourning of something. Perhaps his brother's innocence, his lack of awareness of death being real is gone and never coming back. But he would have had to know eventually, right?

Osamu fiddles with the Digivice, but it never glows for him again. He kind of thinks that's a good thing because, well, much as the worm had struck him as harmless, that wind had not been. At all.

So he searches from the outside. Ken's set to come home soon, because he's just exhausted apparently, exhausted and the tubes are slowly coming out and it's like he didn't choke on anything at all. They just can't explain why his neck is such an angry red almost two weeks later.

Their parents are fretting over both of them now. Osamu has never quite felt how annoying it was until this long stretch of days.

It doesn't help that his grades are slipping.

Then his mother invites someone inside, and they're around his age. Osamu recognizes the tufty mess of brown hair and the blue eyes that look too big, but nothing else sticks out. There's no way he goes to his school as anything other than charity he thinks, and Osamu regrets the thoughts a second later.

The boy doesn't even seem remotely bothered, only watches Osamu's mother hurry off to work like there's a giant spider in the room. The boy grins at him. "So, you're Ken's bro, huh?" At the sight of the tension rising up Osamu's back, he waves his tan hands in defense. "Well, see hold on. I'm Ryo. I helped Ken in that other world. You've been there, right?"

Osamu looks around, expecting a chill up his back and a wind strong enough to hurl him through space and time. "Yes," he finally says. "Why?"

Ryo blinks. "Huh, I didn't think you'd be able to get there."

Osamu can only only imagine why. "But I did," he says, to make himself feel better. "Once was enough, thanks."

Ryo laughs. "You'd be able to say that I guess."

Osamu wants to demand answers but doesn't. He isn't in much of a state to be demanding anything from anyone. "I guess," he agreed. "So, why are you here?"

Ryo blinks. "Isn't it obvious?"

Osamu remembers why he doesn't watch anime now. This guy remidns him of an anime. "No, not really."

Ryo rests his chin on his hands. "You've found out about Millenniummon. He doesn't like that. Ken survived and remembers him. He _really_ doesn't like that." He smiles and the expression pulls his face taut. "Imagine what that means."

Osamu is a genius. He still doesn't need to think too hard.


	7. A Price, A Need

7\. A Place, A Need

Osamu, with Ryo's help, researches. Ryo tells him it's not over. In fact, its not even close.

"He likes me way too much," Ryo says with a soft scowl. "Like we're supposed to be one, or something." Osamu wrinkles his nose at the implications and gets a grin in return. "Right? Ken and Wormmon aren't like that at all."

Ryo's cheerful and full of sharp edges that make Osamu wince every time he talks, like there's no filter to him at all. But maybe it's necessary because when Osamu says "Shouldn't he be dead if you've fought him and won?" unlike Ken, he answers honestly.

"Should be but he's a Digimon." Ryo shrugs. "Digimon don't die the same way humans do. Their data is supposed to reconfigure, you know? Become something else, something different. But it doesn't with him. He's just too obsessed with me to be like ordinary digimon I guess."

Osamu writes that down, typing with the other.

"Ken's coming home today, isn't he?"

"Yeah." Osamu's response is absentminded. "Ken wanted me to come but my parents think he's distracting me from class too much."

Ryo scoffs. "Oh _come on._ You can't be that smart."

Osamu's head snaps up and he wants to rage, and rage hard at that because it's not true, there is no way in hell that's not fucking true-

But then he remembers his brother has saved the world and that he was dying for a very close moment there and that Osamu himself is eleven years old.

So he reins in his temper and nods slowly. After all, it's not entirely wrong. Just Ryo doesn't understand how much he needs it. Now, more than ever, he needs to be smart.

"Am to them," he finally says, pushing up his glasses and continuing to type. He's searching anything he can think of. Of course nothing comes up. Nothing relevant anyway. "Doesn't matter. They're idiots. Always have been."

"Ken doesn't think so."

Osamu doesn't grace that with a response. "What is Millenniummon anyway?"

"Depends what form you're looking for." Ryo waves his hands at his glare. "It's true. He evolves, even though he shouldn't be able to. He's _different._ " He sighs. "Supposedly. That's what Gennai says anyway."

Osamu looks up. Now he's never heard that name before. "Who?"

"Gennai." Ryo shakes his head. "He's like a mentor or something. He helped Ken and me find out where we were and where to go and stuff. He was kinda weird. Coulda been worse though, I guess. I mean, he wasn't like: creepy or anything. It was just uncomfortable having a voice over my shoulder the whole time."

"Does he know what this is in Ken?"

Because if he does that's incredible. That's important and necessary info that's-

"Not a lick." Ryo deflates Osamu and yawns as he does it. "Said he had no idea."

"Mm." Osamu gives his computer screen a scan and makes a face. "What about a guy named Oikawa Yukio? You know him?"


	8. With Longer Fingers

8\. With Longer Fingers

He didn't, but funnily enough, Osamu's father did. But knowing that came secondary to helping Ken on the couch. The kid pouted the whole time, even with Ryo being generally encouraging and happy to see him. Osamu wonders if his parents think anything is off. After all, Osamu hadn't had any friends older than him.

He didn't tend to have friends. Friends were boring. Friends were usually a bunch of liars who wanted to mooch off of him.

That wasn't Ryo, though it could have been, truly. It could have been that way very easily. He was friendly enough, and that hid lies no matter what you did. But Ryo wasn't interested in lying. He was interested in getting answers.

"He's a coworker of mine." Osamu listens to his father speak, politely puzzled, unsure what to do with his eldest son's sudden interest in reality. "Separate department, but we've communicated once or twice. Why?"

Osamu looks at him and says without hesitation, "No reason. His name just came up while I was looking for something online today. It was weird."

His father looks at him with concern. "Are you thinking of asking him for an interview?"

Osamu snorts before he can stop himself, even as Ken sleepily wilts on the couch and Ryo's lips purse like an old woman's. "Course not. Seriously, I was just looking up some newspaper articles and his name came up."

"That would be because he was fired from his previous job." His father's face softens as he speaks, and he looks at Ken. It's an odd face for someone who didn't care before. Or supposedly doesn't care. Osamu isn't good at knowing the difference between the two.

"Well, he does a lot of guest articles and scientific papers," his father says after a while. "It got him in trouble at his last position. Talking about monsters and other worlds." He shakes his head. "The poor man was just grieving, of course. Grieving a very miserable loss. But you have to pick yourself up eventually."

Ken starts coughing. It's a very rough but quick set and he soon goes quiet. But the three boys are all looking each other, even as dad runs and sets a glass of water beside him.

Osamu thinks he's going to throw up again and that this time, someone is going to see.


	9. To Another Side

9\. To Another Side

"Let's go back!"

"No."

Osamu doesn't even have to look up to refuse his baby brother. It's probably better that way. If he looks he'll be swayed because little brother eyes do that and that's just… he can't handle that. Sorry Ken.

"But we can't find anything in this world!" Ken sounds better now. He sounds like nothing had happened at all. Except for the dark and ugly times when he's dreaming and he sounds like he's choking. Or the slowly moving moments where he won't look Osamu in the eye almost as much as Osamu won't look at him. "The Digital World _has to_ know more. I'll be okay, Nii-san. Really!"

"No." Osamu looks up a little now. "I know it'd be good but if you don't come home and mom and dad see it I can't just explain it away. You're my responsibility, Ken. Let's just be patient first."

"I'll be okay!" Ken raises his voice like it will help. Osamu looks at him, at the look blazing on his face. The frown there is so thick and heavy it hurts. But Osamu is long used to this. He won't buckle.

He stands up and walks over. "I can't let you go into danger by yourself, Ken. I can't protect you there."

Ken struggles for words and for a moment, Osamu thinks he sees a red glimmer on the back of his brother's neck.

"You've never done that anyway!" his brother shouts, and it's a bit too deep for him, a bit too angry. The anger drains to coughing and coughing to tears.

Osamu can't comfort him, can't see if he's okay. Because those words are ringing in his head for a moment too long, enough time to confirm. Eventually, he pretends to gather himself. Eventually, he comes over and hugs his brother. Ken is shaking so hard he thinks the people below will feel it.

Osamu doesn't talk about this, however. Instead he says, "Let's ask Ryo, tomorrow, okay?"

Ken nods.

But it doesn't matter because the next morning, Osamu's computer is on and Ken is gone.


	10. Heartless Thoughts

10\. Heartless Thoughts

There's no note, no sign of a break in. His brother's school bag is gone. If summer still didn't have another two weeks, and his brother wasn't too smart for supplementary classes, Osamu would assume he was there.

But he's not. The open computer is key.

His parents are terrified, then upset, then angry.

"Osamu-chan is right here! What about our Ken-chan?! What about him? Aren't you going to look for him?"

He has never heard his mother so furious, so full of anger. There's something else in there. Guilt, an undercurrent of self-loathing. He wants to laugh at it, but he is too busy watching his fingernails make his palms bleed.

What if Ken's words the night before had been for his parents, and not for him?

No, he realizes in an instant. It was for everyone.

Osamu knows that being smart doesn't mean anything if your heart's not going to tell you the way to use it. But how would Ken know? He's not praised for watering the garden boxes or keeping the house clean. Not here. In the Digital World, he must have been praised for his gentle heart.

Osamu gets to his feet and leaves. He's sure his parents are saying something, but he can't deal with them. Not when they're all so darn dumb.

Ryo is, not surprisingly, outside. "He left huh?"

"Yeah." Osamu pants for air. He needs to exercise more. "Can you help me find him?"

Ryo grins. "I'm willing to try. Let's go."

Someone's eyes are following them but Osamu can't care. He'll get back to the Digital World and find his brother. And he'll say sorry and a host of other things.

Maybe he'll find a way to give that Millenniummon bastard a good thrashing. If Digimon were programs, you had to be able to hack them.

…

Ken sits in the dark sand. His tears have tapered off to silence now and Wormmon has settled sentry on his head. He watches too, sitting and looking at the waves. They aren't hurting him, and they let Wormmon be here. Maybe this place isn't as bad as he had thought.

The sea starts to rumble. Black hands and tentacles swim up out of it.

Ken thinks about moving and doesn't.

"Go home," whispers the wash. "You don't belong here. You know that you do not. Go home."

Ken makes a face. It almost seems cruel. Then it fades into misery. "That place isn't home."

Wormmon says nothing, and because Ken can't see him, he doesn't know his eyes are red.


	11. Paperless

11\. Paperless

Through the computer screen, Osamu can almost forget how vast and unwieldy the Digital World must be. It only makes sense. The human world is much the same, no matter how much humans claim that they have seen it all now.

But then, he only has Ryo showing him the way with a tiny Digivice (that's what those weird toys are called) and informing of this at a casual rattling off that he'd care about if he understood it more. But he didn't have the time to understand it. Or the actual desire to care.

So he watches, chewing on his thumbnail as Ryo moves with the grace of an antelope all by himself. "Aren't you in danger?"

"Not really." Ryo hops a bush. "They like me here, and no one needs me to lose it right now. They need me to be their hero anyway."

There's something bitter there that he doesn't understand and doesn't know how to ask about. It must be like being a genius where people are only nice to you as long as the box exists.

Ryo's shout of surprise makes Osamu blink. Then a little green blur overtakes the screen. Ryo catches it – him – and Osamu squints. "Wormmon!"

The little Digimon is crying. "Ryo-san! Ryo-san, you're finally here!"

Ryo scoops up the sobbing caterpillar. "Where's Ken buddy?" He's surprisingly all business, despite having the voice of no one too businesslike. "His bro said he went here."

Wormmon sniffles. "Well, he's..." The worm shakes his head. "He's kind of here. It's easier to show you." He hops down and leads them away.

Osamu doesn't know why, but a finger runs down his spine and he thinks he might throw up.

Then he sees Ken look in his direction with red eyes, and very nearly does throw up.


	12. These Small Truces

12\. These Small Truces

Ken doesn't see him. But he sees Ryo and that seems to be enough for flickering gray. He sits there in monochrome, on the steps of what look like the ancient Mayan ruins. He ponders the realism of this but puts it aside. It's irrelevant, because Ken is saying something Osamu himself can't understand. Ryo listens intently, however, and something stings in his heart and runs up his spine.

"Disturbing, isn't it?"

Osamu spun in his chair. No one was there. Yet he felt eyes on his back, thick and red. Or maybe they were blue.

"You're good at upsetting him. Which is wonderful for me. It gets my full desire out in the open."

"Your full-" And then, it all clicks. "Ryo, run!"

Ryo turns on his heel but something, like smoke, washes over the screen and Ryo's body and he's left watching and hearing someone scream.

The screaming and smoke fades all at once when Wormmon, bless his caterpillar heart, pulls Ryo free by sticky web. The two of them are off and running.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" the voice whispers. "You've come this far, little Ichijouji. What's a little further? What is this boy for your brother?"

Osamu has no idea. What he does know is, "Ken wouldn't want to be saved at the cost of his only friend."

It stings. It stings it stings it stings.

"Such a grave miscalculation."

The voice is gone.

That night, as Ryo is rubbing his throat and Osamu is pacing, Ken returns. His eyes aren't red, but they puffed up and he tries to stride past both boys without a word.

His neck glows an uglier brown.


	13. Then They Burn

13\. Then They Burn

Time passes. Ken grows morose.

Their parents notice. But really, how can they not? He doesn't talk much anymore, and he just does his homework in his room. His grades are just fine, of course, but Osamu has never gotten a question for help. It kind of seems like Ken is avoiding it, avoiding him.

Osamu isn't angry at him. Not anymore. Ken didn't have to listen to him all of the time (thoughafter this he really should start a bit more cause he looks peaky) but even if he was, he looks so profoundly miserable and hunches his shoulders. He's punishing himself.

Maybe it's because Ryo's gone. Gone without a trace. Well, to the human world anyway. He can't help himself in being jealous because if he could get of here and not feel bad he really would.

Osamu still can't grasp why he can't. He doesn't understand why Ken _won't._

"Is he back yet?" he decides to ask when no one but Ken is home?

Ken doesn't look up at him, but his pencil wobbles. Then he forces it hard onto the paper. "No." He swallows. "He's probably not coming back."

Osamu hesitates. It may be a stupid question with an obvious answer but he needs to hear why for some reason, and from Ken's mouth. "Why not?"

 _Why would I let him?_

"Millenniummon's _bad_ ," A scowl, fresh from its lair, fixes into Ken's lips. "And he only wants Ryo. He's probably gonna think if he goes, he'll protect us." Pause. "Protect _me."_

"Friends supposedly protect each other." Osamu lets out a soft sigh. "Do you think you need protecting Ken?"

It's a heavy question, he knows. But Ken is a big boy, he sees now. He has to be. You go on adventures and nearly die you can't just be an ordinary child anymore. If he doesn't accept that fact, Osamu realizes at the hunch of Ken's shoulders, he can't help him.

Finally, the little boy responds. "I need protection from me."

Osamu hesitates, then reaches over and squeezes his shoulder. "You're not the only one."

Ken nods absently. He doesn't believe him. But he wanted to hear it, so Osamu will count his blessings.


	14. Chapter 14

14\. A Growing Sense

Things go back to normal. As normal as normal can be. Ken starts smiling again. It's reluctant at first, but their parents are noticing him. It's only natural with his grades going up. It's almost perfection even. Idyllic. Osamu's just happy he has time to himself. There is no one knocking on their door for his autograph. There are no cameras on his way home. It's peaceful.

It feels wrong.

Perhaps it's because Ryo is still gone. Like, so far gone it's uncanny. Ken has looked him up and his address doesn't mention a son. It doesn't have the right nameplate. It's not Akiyama. It's like they stepped into another dimension one day and nobody noticed. Not their parents, not the schools, no one.

 _What if that happens to Ken?_

No. It can't. It won't. Nothing like that can ever happen. He's finally getting somewhere, something. Osamu is the big brother he can't allow that-

But nothing is happening that he can stop. All he can do is watch and wait. All he can do is feel sickened with himself.

Meanwhile, a steady ache grows in his chest, followed by a slithering sensation like a snake on fire. He can't get rid of it. It just burns like a weird strain of pubescent heartburn. Even in his sleep, it almost drags him awake again. But no one notices it, so he tries to ignore it.

But then he can't. The slithering has become a now familiar mocking caw, like the baying of a murder of crows.

 _Did you miss me?_

Osamu hears this over and over, louder and softer and Ken must know nothing. His neck is still that ugly shade of brown, but it grows lighter every day.

He can't worry him. This is his problem.

 _We understand each other._


	15. A Case Based

15\. A Case Based

Osamu opens his eyes to a strange sunset and Wormmon's somewhat familiar green face. His eyes don't water this time and he stumbles off as quickly as a caterpillar can on his tiny legs. "How… How did I get here?"

"I was going to ask you that!" Wormmon waits for him to get up. "First Ryo goes away, then Ken-chan doesn't stay here much, and now you're here!" He sounds more annoyed than terrified, which Osamu can get behind. At least one of them has to not be scared out of their mind. "Where's Ken-chan? Do you have his Digivice again?"

Osamu shakes his head, patting the pockets of his pants. "You know where Ryo is?" He doesn't have any answers, the least he can do is get some of his own.

Wormmon frowns, or Osamu thinks it's a frown. He can probably tell that Osamu is just distracting, just trying to avoid answering any of those questions because that's too much honesty. "Course not," he replies, and there's a bit too much bitterness, a bit too much pain. "He _left._ "

Osamu blinks once. Then twice. "Left. Why? What about Ken?"

"Dunno!" It's a Ken-ism, Osamu recognizes the way Wormmon, usually too wise, shakes his head like there are cobwebs and monsters hanging off of it. "He decided we weren't as important, I think. Or the Holy Ones decided that. I'm not sure, exactly. But he left to get rid of Millenniummon."

"How?"

Wormmon's antenna quiver. "Gennai wouldn't tell me. He just said he could do it. So, Ryo went to do it. But he's the only one who can fight, I guess. Ken's too worried to fight." The Digimon looks at him. "Why are you here?"

"Why, because I asked him to be."

There was a voice, deep and yet etheral, weighing down on their shoulders like an unruly shawl. Wormmon trembles but clacks his mouth.

"What do you want?"

"What I have always wanted. I want Ryo." Millenniummon seems to laugh. "I want him for me. Even from myself. And with you, and with that thing, I will get him back."

"He'll beat you!" Wormmon shouts to Osamu's horror. "Ken-chan and Ryo have beaten you before! We'll do it again!"

"You cannot." Millenniummon does laugh now. "You cannot kill a Digimon partner, not forever. Only we can kill ourselves."

"What?"

Osamu's throat feels dry.

Millenniummon laughs harder, and then his ears fill with feral fragments of whisper, encouraging, daring, hoping-

 _You can make it stop. You just have to die for me. You just have to make amends. Your brother won't be sorry until you are._


	16. An Ultimatum

16\. The Ultimatum

He wakes up in his own bed. When he looks, there's no hint of his adventure. No dirt beneath his nails. No fog on his glasses from sweat and tears. His sneakers weren't on his feet, even. His head falls back on his pillows. Maybe that had been just a dream.

As he thinks that, he feels clawed fingers stroke his throat. He doesn't twitch, barely even breathes. He won't give the monster the satisfaction it desires. He won't give him the fear, the despair.

Not that Osamu thinks he will survive this, period. He's not considered a genius because he wears glasses after all. It's just a matter of when and how.

It's also a matter of helping Ken.

At the very least, he has to do that. And who knows? Maybe that will save him, save them all.

But first he…

Osamu moves to his feet. There will be no more sleep tonight. His desk lamp switches on.

If his parents pass by the room, Osamu pays no attention. If Ken comes by and watches, he doesn't notice that either. He just hears Wormmon pleading for Osamu's life. Hears cold awful laughter and buries that horrible realization deep within his heart.

Ryo is killing his partner, over and over again. He's somewhere else where he can do it again and again.

Osamu can't help the sickening feeling in his heart. Would Ken have to do that someday?

No. He would never. Osamu would make sure of it, if it was the last thing he did.

It very well might be, he realizes, scribbling anew.


	17. A Nice Day

17\. A Nice Day

Ken is happy. Ken is bouncing and smiling.

It's Osamu's birthday, so he can't be faking it. Birthdays make Ken smile, happiness makes him smile.

Or maybe, for once, his little brother is simply being unobservant of the heavy thumping and the sweat running down Osamu's normally immaculate palms. At the even heavier bags under his eyes.

It was possible that he was in denial, but Osamu wants to believe he's not. He can't know. He just can't.

The monster snickers too loudly, but Ken doesn't react.

"Ice cream?" he says. He's looking for other things to say, happier things to say. His research, his ideas, they lead nowhere but down, nowhere but hell. So he likely needs a break from this other world that doesn't want him, this brother that might die if he doesn't and the bitter taste of betrayal because Ryo had been able to do something

And simply had not.

"It's nice out for it!" Ken agrees readily enough.

Their parents want to come along. Their parents want to join in. But Osamu doesn't want that. Not just for ice cream. So he takes Ken by the hand and leads him away. They'll be together for dinner, where she won't critique his choice of pistachio flavor and his father will splurge, talking about articles that are normally so boring. But now they sound interesting. His father's voice feels like something he'll love to hear when he gets back.

But as they reach the bottom of the stairs, and he's talking and they're walking together even though Osamu wants them there and doesn't, he can't put his finger on why.

He blames it, personally, on the shaking.


	18. A Screeching Sound

18\. A Screeching Sound

Osamu has never read much fiction. His mind was too caught up on the real, on the things that needed to be done right in front of him. But he remembers his mother reading myths. He remembers Western fairy tales.

He remembers happily ever afters.

As they walk, Ken's hand stays obediently in his. Straightforward, kind, good, all these words describe his baby brother. All these words are painful and right. It needs to stop.

They pause for a moment, and their parents walk ahead a few steps. Both of them have shorter strides and Osamu has to keep himself from overwhelming little Ken's legs. It helps to pause and look at the red barcode that's currently pink and think it should be worse than this, angrier than this.

Why me? He thinks. What fascinates you about… me?

 _Nothing in particular,_ Millenniummon admits. _Rather, if anyone could repeat what I've done, it would be you. And I can't risk that. I am all that needs to be._

Then there is a screeching sound, so close and so far. Another sound. Then another, this one closer, this one sooner.

Osamu lets go of Ken mid-step. But it's not out of love. It is a reflex born of fear.

The truck's windows show a man with a smile on his face. A smile of cool deliberation. Dark hair, a sallow face, beady eyes. Rage. So much rage.

And yet… and yet.

In the instant between life and death, Osamu receives a unique, peaceful clarity.

Oikawa Yukio wanted his brother.

Osamu can't move, but his feelings can burn.

Never, a thousand times over.


	19. A Monochrome Place

19\. A Monochrome Place

Ken is imagining it.

There is no red coating his hands. His brother's hair is not sticky and matted. His glasses are on his face instead of scattered pieces on the ground. His brother is still breathing.

There is no siren.

But his imagination isn't lying. His palms are red. His brother is breathing at least, a fragile, shallow pain that screams how not worth it it all is. How much better if it would be if it stopped.

Ken can't let it stop. He can't lose him. He didn't want it like this. Not his brother. Not when his brother had believed him, had wanted him around. He had been so close and so far away lately. So… so…

He whimpers.

Something inside him, however, curdles like milk. It's happy. It's proud.

Well… forget it! It's wrong. Osamu should be okay! He should stay okay!

 _If he dies, they'll notice you. Won't that be great?_

 _No,_ Ken thinks, tears sliding down his face. _Because what can I do with it by myself?_

There's so much beeping and whining, the wails of sirens big and small and people shoving him aside-

 _-like always-_

except this time his mother actually catches him, holding him tight as they watch Osamu being taken away in the big shiny ambulance this go around and maybe it's all his fault and maybe it's not, but this is definitely the worst birthday ever.

…

Osamu sleeps for too long. The doctors say the Osamu they know won't wake up.

Ken doubts this. But then he's pretty much doubting everything at the moment. His parents are very bad at reassurance. Still, they think it's better if he _doesn't_ wake up, and Ken supposes in some rational part of his brain that had just been born, that this makes sense, and might even be a benefit.

Ken feels sick to his stomach.

 _You could have been a little less determined._

He'll wake up.

 _You could have helped me like you were supposed to._

He'll get better.

 _You could have made Ryo stay._

Miracles do exist.

 _This is because of you._

His mind wars with his body. He throws up in a toilet this time, at least. But it changes nothing. He can't change anything.

Would it be better if he disappeared instead? Would things go back to normal if he did?

Ken thought very hard about finding out.


	20. A Locked Door

20\. The Locked Door

Ken feels his life gray out just like that beach. It's almost literal in a way. He starts back up in school, his parents work, and they visit his brother at different times of the week. He's almost able to forget what life was like before. Then his neck throbs and he remembers what had come before. Of the inequality.

His parents were trying to have hope, but they were also trying to accept it was all over. Ken's stomach churns when he sees them. They're apologetic now, all the time. They keep looking at him, sometimes with this fear that he can't put into words.

What will happen if _he_ disappears too? He can't do that to them. Not when he's already done all this!

 _It'd serve them right though, wouldn't it?_ Whispers the voice that tells uncomfortable truths. _They didn't care about you before this, right?_

 _Maybe not._ Ken isn't sure. He is sure they can't do anything about the past. And besides, he hurt them with his thoughts too, he ran away behind his family's back. And now his brother may never wake up, may never teach him again, may never blow bubbles with him-

Ken pauses. He looks at Osamu's computer. His brother has hopelessly easy passwords for a smart person. The Digivice fidgets in his pockt.

Slowly, Ken approaches the desk and sits down. His neck burns, hotter as his fingers brush the Digivice, hotter as he searches. It sneers at him. The voice sneers.

Ken only clicks and clicks. Everything soon fades away but that pain and the words.

 _You really want to save him?_

 _Yes._

 _Will you do anything to save him?_

 _Yeah!_

 _Then I guess we'll just have to get along._

Ken doesn't remember going to bed.

* * *

The young man opens his eyes. There is a soft, steady, annoying beeping and bright light spills from underneath the doorway. He makes a noise of irritation and makes to lift his arm. He fails.

The young man is not impressed.

Still, he manages a laugh, low and cold.

"Well," Osamu says in a voice that is not his own. "Close enough, I suppose."

* * *

 _ **A/N:** _ And that is that. At the moment, I'm not thinking too much about a sequel. But if enough interest grows and some time opens up, I'll think hard on it! At any rate, thanks so much for sticking it out with me. Want some more Osamu, Ken, Ryo, and the other 02 kids? Check out _Put In Check_ , a much longer multichap! Thanks a lot guys! I'll see you later!


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